Gain structure and mixing; or how to make your mixdowns sound fantastic!

[Dave S]

Hey all,

I'm mostly lurking these days.  Currently doing final mixdowns for my 
album... yes, a real album, coming out on a small record label sometime 
"soon" hehe!  Exciting times for me - I expect my part of the process to 
be finished within the next month, if I keep going at the current rate.

I'll let the 'bar know when it's ready to listen to - free MP3 copies 
will be available to anyone who is interested to hear it, naturally.

Anyway, I've been doing a LOT of reading lately to try and help me 
improve my mixes as much as possible before mastering, and there's this 
one particular thread on Dubstep Forum which is just a goldmine of 
useful information on how to properly structure your mix so that your 
tracks will sound consistently good.

I can't recommend it enough - the advice within is universally useful, 
and is not just for people writing dubstep.  Read the whole thing if you 
have time, or at least about the first 5-12 pages or so (which is where 
most of the really useful info is, IMHO).

Seriously, just read it - you are pretty much guaranteed to learn 
something useful!!!

http://www.dubstepforum.com/this-thread-will-answer-your-mixing-and-mastering-questions-t74832.html

Or as a shorter link: http://tinyurl.com/gainstructure

I've also been sinking my teeth into the Bob Katz book "Mastering Audio" 
(2nd edition), which while is not totally relevant to what I'm doing 
(I'm mixing not mastering) is still a very accessible book considering 
the subject matter, and provides immense food for thought.

Based on what I've read so far in that book, I would heartily recommend 
it for anybody wanting to improve the sound of their music.  It'll get 
you thinking a lot more about what you're doing, and you may find (as 
I'm already finding) that armed with an increased awareness of how 
things work throughout the whole process, it's considerably easier to 
just get things sounding good.

Once this album is out of the way (some tracks are 2 years old) I can't 
wait to start writing some new material with my increased theoretical 
knowledge there from the beginning - I anticipate a hugely improved 
workflow and far less headaches.

Theory... it's not as fun as writing music, but on the other hand, get 
some of it firmly into your head, and the flow of the creative process 
just gets better and better.  At least, that's my experience.

Hope you're all keeping well?

Cheers,

Dave